Tuesday, July 30, 2013
gas delivery
Saturday, July 27, 2013
kanisa (church)
sunday service: 6:30 p.m.
I’ve gone to this church twice now. It’s a 10 min walk from my house, so very convenient. It’s a small church – in size and congregation. Fold-up chairs had been set up and there were maybe 30 some people present. It’s quite a new establishment and was co-founded 3 years ago by a Korean and Arab pastor. Service is entirely in Arabic. My first time there (7/7) was bit intimidating. I sat near the back and awkwardly gave a nod of acknowledgement to people who looked my way. I felt more at ease once the service began and familiar church routines proceeded. The service started with worship. No band, just a Korean woman on keyboard sitting among the congregation in the first row. I had never heard any of the songs before, but thankfully words are projected onto the wall at the front of the room. I read along as best as I could and clapped when others started clapping. Then there was prayer. After prayer, the pastor, a tall man with a white short-sleeved dress shirt, black dress pants, and a huge cross necklace steps to the front of the rom. We sang more songs then he proceeded to speak. Before we dove into the Word, he had everyone hold up a copy of the Bible, there were already many lying on empty chairs around the room but ushers also came by to further distribute Bibles. Then in repeat-after-me style with the pastor, the congregation prayed aloud for wisdom and insight in exploring the words of the Lord (at least that’s my guess). After the sermon, there was communion. I can’t remember the last time a church used real wine for their communion, but I think I prefer it to grape juice. After I tore off a portion of the loaf of bread that was being passed around and took a little cup of wine from the usher, I proceeded to partake in communion with the rest of the church body. Even though I was in a foreign country, listening to a service in a still fairly foreign language, I felt at home among other believers. After communion came the collection of offering. Prayer. Then announcements. All rituals that I was familiar with and understood with people who worshiped, praised, and believed in the same God I did. Although I couldn’t understand the message of the sermon and can’t even remember what the reference verse was, I celebrated little victories whenever I was able to catch a word that I understood. Here are some of the ones that I remember:
•Blood: دم
•Power: سلطة
•Great: أعظيم
•Son: أبن
•The Spirit is among us: لروح منكم
•Problem: مشكلة
•Position: موقف
•Sadness: حزن
I had originally wanted to attend a church service out of a pressing desire to establish a stronger sense of community in this country. I also figured it would be a great way to practice and learn Arabic. I didn’t stay to mingle after the church service. After the service, it seemed like the magic disappeared and I felt awkward again. I left quickly.
Second service
I went the following Sunday (7/14) for another service. The plan is to go every week until I leave Amman (though I skipped last week – oops). After stumbling in late, I was a bit confused to see the church swelling in attendance and was also asking myself where all the Koreans had come from. After seeing the matching “Heal the World” t-shirts and hearing an introduction from the Arab pastor of the church, I remembered that the church was hosting a group from a visiting Korean church (the home church of the Korean pastor, one of the co-founders of the church). I really lucked out with the visit because not only was the sermon in English (was delivered by the youth pastor of this Korean church) but it was translated into Arabic by the pastor that normally speaks to the congregation. The atmosphere was great. The message was very insightful and powerful. Luke 5:11 – 32 was the reference verse and it was all about loving one another. Pastor talked about newcomers to the church being like newborn babies. They need a lot of nurturing and care. The older members of the church are loved by the pastor but the amount of attention and care looks different. If we don’t feel like we are getting the kind of lathered nurture and care that are given to newcomers, this is why. The important thing is not to serve just out of responsibilities and not to serve just to get something in return. The church should be a place where newcomers feel comfortable, not just a place where long-time members feel comfortable. This is why the church exists. To love one another. To serve as a home for all. The important thing is to serve out of love. In the words of the pastor, “If you do things out of responsibility, you have limits. If you do it out of love, you can go on forever.” The pastor mentioned that just as Korea must love Japan, even though it still suffers a lot of hurt from the wounds that Japan left when it colonized the nation 36 years ago. In the same way, we must strive for love and unity among all. God loves Jordan and God loves Israel. We must strive for love and unity among all: Israelis and Palestinians, Jordanians and Israelis, North and South Koreas, Koreans and Japanese. I was a bit surprised he brought up Israel and Palestine and definitely gave out a victory cry, “You go, brother!” inside me. If we talk about the love of God but do not love one another, it is just knowledge not love. I decided to mingle today and I really want to attend the women’s group that the church hosts during the week, so I also stayed around to ask for information. It turned out that they weren’t having women’s group that week because of the visiting group from the Korean church. Had a lot of fun meeting some of the members of this church. They were incredibly nice. Had some delicious pastries, osh el bulbul (shredded bird’s nest). The nest is created out of stringy knafeh dough that is dipped in sugar syrup and stuffed with pistachios. We sang “How Great Thou Are” in Arabic, which was a pretty cool experience. Some Arabic I was able to pick up on and others I learned:
•What’s the meaning?: شو معنى
•Look: شوف
•Oldest son: ابن أكثر
•Father’s love: محبا أيوية
•Give them: يعطوا
•Father’s heart: قلب أبو
•Image of God: صورة
•Responsibilities: المسؤوليات
•Refugees: الأجئين
•North Korea: كوريا الشمابية
•South Korea: كورية الجنوبية
•Border: الحدود
•Savior: السيد المسيح
•Christ: المسيح
•O Lord: يا رب
•Christian: مسيحي
•Pray: صلى
•Fasting: صيام
new music
Egyptian rapper
El Morabba3: Ya Zein / المربع - يا زين
Jordanian band (from Amman!)
Thursday, July 18, 2013
this language
خيري = charitable, philanthropic
it just so happens that the common response to "how are you?" is "بخير," which means "good." i think it's neat that charitable, philanthropic, and good share the same root. and the word for good that shares the same root for charitable is used in greeting responses. in a way, it's as if you're saying, "i am charitable."
خمر = wine
(أحمر) i find this word interesting because the word for red shares the same root. it gave me insight into the history of food & drink culture in the middle east. after a quick search, i learned that wine in ancient egypt was predominately red..
صابون = soap ("pronounced "saaboon)
savon = soap in french
soap also sounds a lot like saaboon. i'd love for someone to come clean and tell me where this word originated from.
حاجة = need, necessity
this word shares the same root as الحج, which means "pilgrimage." i find this to be interesting because the great pilgrimage to mecca is one of the 5 pillars of islam.
مِوقت = temporary
this shares the same root with the word for time (وقت). damn did those arabs get that right.
Friday, July 12, 2013
aqaba & wadi rum
remember khaleel, our taxi friend from jerash? he agreed to take us on a day trip to aqaba and wadi rum. best decision i’ve made in jordan thus far. he (conveniently) brought along his police officer younger brother, which is handy when you are a bit of a traffic outlaw. i don’t think there was single police officer we did not stop to say hi to. even if the police officers were on the other side of the highway, khaleel and his brother would literally get out of the car, cross the highway, and chat up the police officers. I remember once during the evening, khaleel was speeding away back towards amman, and among of the many things we sped past were a cluster of police officers. about 100 m past these police officers, khaleel puts the brakes on the taxi and backs up right up next to them. and then, once again, the greetings and small talk. he even got their number this time. at the conclusion of the trip, he did not once get ticketed for speeding. the brother was certainly a good choice.
aqaba:
coastal city situated right next to the red sea. beautiful place. normally the place is packed on thursdays and fridays. we left amman at 6 am & arrived at aqaba around 9 am. stayed there around 3-4ish…upon our arrival, we took a paddle boat out into the red sea. it was a great time on the water. we were able to look out across the water towards egypt in on direction & palestine in another. apparently, jordan’s king hussein has an aqaba home that i had pointed out to me as well. The water was so clear, absolutely pristine. so peaceful out there. at the conclusion of our paddle boat ride, we decided to grab onto the side of a glass boat and in this way, we were pulled back to shore, without any effort at all on our part. after paddle boating, we had relaxed on the beach drinking coffee and water. lunch was afterwards at bukhara restaurant, which is located right next to al-sharif al-hussein bin ali mosque. food was so good – chicken, rice, some kind of salsa thing, salad, yogurt. mcdonald’s ice cream along the beach then skipping rocks with little jordanian boys. briefly walked through the courtyard of the aqaba archaeological museum, which is just outside the historic aqaba court, walked past the tremendous flag pole with the flag of the arab revolt mounted on it (apparently it’s the 5th tallest freestanding flagpole in the world @ 130 m & can be seen from israel, egypt, & saudi arabia). after airing out the car, cranking up the air-con, spraying half a bottle of lady’s perfume into the a/c vents, himself, and the rest of the passengers in the vehicle (i.e. us), khaleel set the car into motion & we were off to wadi rum!!
wadi rum:
wadi means “valley” in arabic. this is a valley in southern jordan made up of granite & sandstone mountains. there are some really cool rock formations here & the blend of reds, oranges, browns are really something. khaleel said that everything time he comes to wadi rum, it’s different because the element are constantly and ever-persistently altering its landscape. we stopped at a resort/camp meant for tourists that i believe was nearby an actual bedouin camp. we climbed some of the outcroppings behind the camp & found ourselves looking out a marvelous view of the valley & surrounding desert. afterwards, we went on a jeep tour that took us until the valley. our first stop was at a sand dune. we went on the tour nearing sunset, so by this time, the surface of desert’s orange sand had cooled off, but once you started to dig your feet into the earth, you could feel the different layers of heat hidden beneath the veneer of the sand. the sand was so soft. climbing & then sitting atop the sand dunes was one of the best things in the world. i felt so at peace & so happy. it was such a surreal experience to be so far away from civilization, from the life i’m used to. i felt so once with the earth. it was a bit of a spiritual experience. it was so much fun running through the sand, making sand angels, & being buried alive by khaleel & his brother. soon we were back on the jeep, riding through the valley with our hair billowing in the wind (would’ve made for a great pantene commercial). not long after, we stopped at a cave that our bedouin tour guide claimed once served as the house of lawrence of arabia. it was a fairly small place. there was some red dirt outside the cave that we used to decorate our faces for war. after the cave, we stopped at a bedouin pit stop tent. the tent was made out of goat wool, which is amazing at keeping out the heat in the summer & cold in the winter. the place was very cozy & we sat there for a bit, relaxing on couches & sipping cinnamon & cardamom tea that had been boiled over a fire pit in the middle of the tent. chatted up an old man bedouin & told how much I loved the place and he said in the future i should live with the bedouins… for free! next stop was at “the mushroom,” a rock formation that looked like a mushroom. we climbed atop the thing. when you were standing, you could hear the roar of the wind rush past you – nature’s many melodies – but if you laid down, the wind swept right past you & didn’t reach your ear drums at all. it was so quiet. last stop served as an opportunity for us to watch the sunset (in arabic, “sunset” literally means: the westing of the sun). back at the camp, we climbed aboard our taxi carriage & drove a little ways away from the camp then stopped to climb on one of the outcroppings to wait for the stars to make their appearance. so many stars! tons of satellites. even saw a shooting star. could always see the milky way extremely clearly. last time i remember seeing the milky way so distinctly was in mexico during 2008. we made it home around midnight. The whole trip (taxi ride, lunch, paddle boat, snacks, souvenirs, jeep tour) was 60 JD (~$85). not bad.
nancy ajram
went to a concert in jerash, a city 1 hour (or 45 min when you have a taxi driver that is not afraid of the law - the ride over was excellent: arab music cranked up way high and watching city being stripped of its buildings until it stood naked in its natural desert state), outside of amman, where i have been staying. jerash is the site of the fairly well-preserved, considering the earthquake that it endured, ruins of the greco-roman city. we drove past young kids selling trinkets at stoplights and other sights of poverty. it made me realize how well-off amman is compared to the rest of jordan and opened my eyes to the different layers of the social strata in this country. this nancy ajram concert was part of the larger jerash music festival. i had recently heard about her through wiki-ing arab idol following the victory of the palestinian singer mohammed assaf, who has been creating great waves throughout the arab world. we got there fairly early, but it was a bit too late to explore the rest of the ruins. we quickly found the south theatre, where the concert was slated to take place. after having our bags checked, we stumbled around until we found the south theatre, where our bags were checked yet again. the bag checks were gender specific, which I found interesting. the theatre was still fairly empty when we got it, but my god was it a splendid site. the view of the stage from the seats of the roman theatre was one of the coolest things in my life. and later, after the sun had set and a sea of black became the backdrop of the roman theatre, it became even more incredible. i don’t think there is such a thing as “sold out” at concerts. once the concert was in full swing, the place was packed. the energy was great. tons of people – young and old -- dancing and singing. i loved the diverse range of people present at the concert. nancy ajram was great. she’s an arab pop singer that hails from beirut. i couldn’t understand any of the music and eventually it all started to sound the same, but i had been itching for live music and i think the spirit of the place was really good for me. whenever people come together to celebrate their existence through music, i get excited. there was an amazing electric guitarist that had some cools solos. there was a really random element of the concert where kids (all little girls) would be brought up onto the stage. some seemed to be really confused about why they were there. they would spend a good 5 seconds on stage with nancy then after a quick photo, they were swept off the stage by body guards and carried (literally) back to their parents. at one point, a really big kid (some 20 some year old) got to go on stage and was super excited. the highlight of the concert has to be when some random kid had gotten over the wall of the theatre attached to the theatre and got as close as one of the roman columns that decorated the stage before body guards noticed and swarmed on stage to get him the fuck out of there. you go kid. there was a bit of confusion afterwards but then the concert went on as normal. after a bit, the kid was back on stage. i guess he had convinced the guards to let him apologize to nancy. after a quick apology and cheering from the audience, he was hastily led off stage. people filed out quickly afterwards. my roommate and i had made friends with the taxi driver who chauffeured us to jerash, and while we were waiting for him to pick us up, we walked through some of the ruins. there were souvenirs, food, and other trinkets laid out along the colonnade street. had some funny things said to me (e.g. “ni hao,” “welcome to jordan! Welcome to traffic!” “hello, can I show you the moving pillar?”). a lot of people started speaking in gibberish as we passed by them in an attempt to speak to me in chinese. finally, khaleel, our taxi driver arrived. we were quite glad too, it was getting to be a bit creepy once most of the people and even the police started leaving. all in all, incredible evening. can’t believe I got to see a concert at a roman ruin.
outside the theatre
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
make it count
>2nd cup (abdoun)- not my favorite.
>al-shareef cafe (right behind my house , 30 sec walk) - i love it, more on the traditional side. most of the time, the cafe is full of men playing cards and smoking hookah. i've come here to study twice. it's nice. i always sit by the entrance, so i get front row seats to the little breeze that blows into the cafe and makes a hot summer day in amman much more tolerable. they serve traditional arabic coffee here & it is so good. orange juice here is freshly squeezed and equally amazing.
>internet cafe (mukhtar mall, right next to qasid institute, 5 min walk) - this place is okay. they have nice plush seats but it gets really hot, especially because it's on the top level of the mall. ambience isn't my favorite.
>turtle green tea bar (rainbow street) - i love it here. it's got a very hip, young vibe. drinks are a bit pricey but they know how to do their drinks. my 3 JD arnold palmer hit the spot ; so delicious. smoking section upstairs (this seems to be pretty common; 2nd cup had the same set up). this place had chalk for the blackboard near the baristas and bar stools, turtle pillows, and kick-ass music. they played coldplay, death cab for cutie, whole bunch of cool french music, even a pink floyd cover in french. i really enjoyed hanging out here. it seemed like the place to hang out too - everyone seemed to know everybody (but then again, that might just be the nature of amman). turtle green, you better watch out, because i will be back.
class: has been good. i was feeling a bit complacent a few days ago - we were still reviewing material that i had already covered spring quarter and the class activities were a bit repetitive and dry. it has also been difficult to jump right back into an 8 am schedule. i have been napping a lot this past week and doing homework all day; hadn't had much of a chance to explore the city. things have been getting better though. my teachers are both great. i especially like tasneen - we play games in her class :) i'm trying to change my mindset and marinate it with reminders such as , "your time here really won't last so make the most of it. qasid is a great institute with great teachers. there's always something new to learn." we may be getting more students at the institute due to the politics in egypt. i found out about morsi at a concert i had gone to tonight. it was so surreal.
successes: upon leaving turtle green tea cafe, i was on the prowl for a taxi. there were a couple parked on the side of the road but they wanted to charge me 4 JD for the ride home (i had paid 2 JD, meter rate, on the way over). no fucking way. found another taxi but it had a broken meter, so i asked if he would take me for 2 JD. he wanted 3 JD. i didn't want to give in that easily. 2.5 JD? okay, 2.5 JD. and thus, my first successful bargain. i ended up leaving the cab feeling quite elated because i had also managed to hold a decent conversation in arabic with the cab driver. life in jordan seems hard but taxi drivers don't have it that bad. it's a pretty good job - they make around the average salary (500-600 JD a month).
rando thoughts: overall, things have felt kind of a roller coaster ride. there have been ups and downs, good and bad. right now, i think i am on the upswing. i was feeling homesick, for people i love back home, mainly. i've decided that the solution is to carve out a community for myself here and to keep myself busy. i hope to get plugged into a church and i'm going to check out one next sunday. pretty excited. i gotta embrace this country. be excited. i think it also helps that my premenstrual mood swings are over.
it matters not how strait the gate.
how charged with punishment the scroll.
i am the master of my fate.
i am the captain of my soul.
--william earnest henley
summer goals (WIP)
personal goals for the summer:
1. use arabic boldly
2. increase vocabulary
3. improve listening comprehension
4. pick up some of the jordanian dialect
5. explore, engage, & experience jordan
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